Hai Ren

Hai Ren (任海) is Professor of East Asian Studies and Anthropology, and affiliated faculty in Gender and Women’s Studies, and Social, Cultural & Critical Theory at the University of Arizona. He is also Bayu Scholar Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sculpture at Sichuan Fine Arts Institution in Chongqing, a top-ranking sculpture program in China. He received his BA in History and Archeology from Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, and a MA in Museum Studies and a Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of Washington in Seattle. His current teaching and research interests include research-oriented art, public culture, new materialism, environmental humanities, comparative media and technology studies, urban studies, critical theory, and political philosophy. His interdisciplinary publications include studies of socially engaged art, research-oriented art, public history, new materialist anthropology, urban studies, comparative media and technology, popular culture, and critical theory. They reflect Professor Ren's commitment to more-than-Asian studies. His recent work has appeared in Verge: Studies in Global Asias, Screen Bodies, The Art Newspaper China, Mediapolis, Journal of Urban Affairs,  Journal of Korean and Asian Arts, China Review International, and Pacific Affairs. His forthcoming book focuses on research-oriented art and generative aesthetics in Sinophone Asia.